Rail-joint.



W. H. SHUGART.

RAIL JOINT.

APPLICATION IILED JUNE 26, 1909.

K333 Patented Oct. 19, 1909.

UNITED STATES rA E T caries wILnIAia lIflilSiEifiGAR'l-h or nnwronr, TENNESSEE. 1

new ,and useful Improvements I in Rail- Joints, of Whi'ch -the following is speci-v This invention relates to. railway appliancesand es ecially to an improved'form ofrailway rall jointhaving in view a device @"ofthis character which shall-possess" certain features ofime'rit ada tingitvp'eculiarly to ,the purposes of the f eviee and enhancing the symmetry'and' general appearance "as well as "the general ut lity and practicability I drawings,='in which--' cordance withithe inventionfg 'Fig. 2 is a. transverse vertical section taken substan tially through: the device at 'theend of the:

' of the device;

For a full-understanding of the invention reference is to be had to the following de-fi; tailed description. and 1 the I I accompanying Figure 1 is a diagrammaticplan view indicating a complete rail joint"made in acrail; Fig. 3 is a perspective detail showing the relation between a fishplate and the chair andespeciallythe means to lock the two said parts together; Fig.4. is adetail' practical embodiment thereof, a chair or ase plate 10 of any suitable length to rest 'upon two or more cross ties 11 isvprovided.

Said chair comprises a flat base portion 10 w from which along its lateral edges extend upwardly and inwardly a pair of-"parallel bracing flanges 10". The inner faces of said flanges adjacent to the base 10 arepreferably spaced at'some distance outwardly from the base flanges of the rails 12, and the upper edge of said flanges 1O are spaced sufliciently far apart to permit the introduction of the base 12 of the rails. Without;

slipping the chair or the rails lon i-tudinally,

of each other. Asindicated in ig. 2, for

instance, the rail 12 may be introduced into and u on the chalr after the latter has been place into its position' by simply tilting I min- 0me.

I j 3 the rail so as'to permit, the base 12: Be it known "that 1,, WILLIAM' Sun.- 5

LGA I rr, a citizenofthe United States, residing at New. ort, in the county of Gockean'd State of Tennessee] "have invented-certain" a; pass into -the chair. This is importanflfor the reason that when it is necessary to replace a broken or-damagedrai'l only-the fastening devices for thatgrail require to .be removed orloosened, the chairsat the oppo- Isite ends of the rails remaining. in place.

Q The chair having been secured in place I and the meeting rail ends introduced thereinto as above describeda pair of fishlplates 13 of-peculiar. form are driven into the s 'aces between the web 12* of the rails'an the flanges 10 of the chairs. The fish plates are ,Wedge shaped or tapering from, end to end and are driven intoposition from opposite ends of the chair. The chair therefore will occupy a slight angular positionfwith reference tothe lineof the rails 12 as ndicated in-Fig. 1. Each fish plate wed e 13" is pro- .vided with a shoulder 13 whic rests upon the upper edge ofthe adjacent flange 10",

said shoulder formed byxan undercut rabbet into which the said flange projects.

The outer face of the fish'plate .hes substantially in the plane of the outer face of the flange, permitting .a smooth and neatjoint.

The fish plate is comparatively broad on its base and projects outwardly beyond the rail base 12' snugly against the inner face 'ofthe Y chair flange 10". The shoulder 13 fitting snugly upon the edge-of the flange prevents any possibility for the lateral strain or thrust of thejfish plate, due to side strain on the rail 12, from spreading or distorting the joint chair.

I'have found by racticalexperience that. a difliculty hereto ore existing .in railway joints was due to tendency of the rails to tilt, due to improper or unefi'ective bracing at. the. joints.

I I The construction ofthis invention is admirably adapted to prevent this difliculty by its pecuhar interlocking and bracing construct on.

The construction of Fig. 5 is substantially I similar to that above described, but the chair flan esv 10 extend fart-her up toward the bead 12 .of the rail. The shoulder 13 of each fish plate cooperates with the upper edge of the saidflange 1 0 for the same purpose as set forth. I

A joint constructed ,and assembled as here in describedwill ordinarily not require auxiliary devices to prevent displacement of the parts, the friction between the fish plates and the ,otherparts of-t-he joint ordinarily being sufiicient to retain them in position.

ple'and'yet e ective means for 'It is my desire however, to provide a simpositively preventing longitudinal unauthorized displacement of the fish plates. To this end I provide one or both of the chair flanges with one or more notches 14 and intowhich'the. adjacent outer-edge of the fish plate shoulder may beset by operation with a punch or similar tool as indicatedfat 15. The said shoulder along-its outer edge being compara-.

tively thin is capable 0 being upset or swaged into .said notches. This result may be accomplished by a simple operation of a tcol, andwhennecessary to remove the fish plates, a reverse operation by a chisel or the like may be resorted to to loosen the same. The chairmay be held in place on the cross ties by means of spikes 16 coiiperatingwith notches 17 on the chair in a well known manner;

from the rail base and extending upwardly I and inwardly substantially in a line with the rail'bead, a pair of tapered fish plates driven from opposite ends of the ch ir into the spaces between therails and sai chair flanges, each of said fish plateshaving an outwardly projecting shoulder forming an undercut rabbet into which the upper edge of the adiacent chair flange is received, the outer sur ace of the fish plate substantially coinciding with the corresponding surface of the chair flange, and means to prevent undesirable longitudinal displacement of the fish plates.

2. The herein described rail joint comprising. in combination with the meeting ends of railway, rails, a chair having a fiat bottom receiving said rails thereupon and a pair of parallel upwardly andinwardly projectin side flanges, said flanges being spaced at their bottoms at some distance outwardly from the rail base and extending upwardly and inwardly substantially in a line with the rail bead, a pair of tapered fish plates driven from opposite ends of the chair into the spaces between the rails and said chair flanges, each of said fish plates having an' outwardly rojccting shoulder forming an undercut ra bet-into which the upper edge of the adjacent chair flange is received, and means constituting a positive lock between said fish plates and chair, said ,means including one or more notches formed in each of said chair flanges adjacent their upper outer edges into which portions of the fish plate shoulders may be swage'd.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM H. SHUGAR-T. Witnesses:

M. L. TALALEY, R. L. TALLEY. 

